Kari Kirkegaard, 56, was found slain in her home at 709 S. Garfield Ave., a few blocks east of the Great Plains Zoo. / Jay Pickthorn / Argus Leader

Written by

Kari Kirkegaard

Kari Ann Kirkegaard, 56, had none of the risk factors, or the background, that police are used to seeing in homicide victims.

She was a single mother loved by her son and family. Cancer couldn’t stop her. Family members say she was loved by all.

Nick Kirkegaard’s fiancée found his mother dead Sunday in the bathtub of her home at 709 S. Garfield Ave. in Sioux Falls, a few blocks east of the zoo.

The water still was running. There were no signs of a struggle. No forced entry was evident.

Her son and his fiancée thought she had drowned.

Nick Kirkegaard called an uncle, Brian Johnson, who rushed over to his sister’s home. The last time Johnson had seen his older sister alive was about a week and a half ago, he said. Other family members had seen her Friday when they had dinner together at Pizza Ranch.

Police initially figured Kirkegaard’s death was an accident, but it didn’t take long for family members to see otherwise.

“Her purse was gone. Her car keys were gone. Money was gone. Her sheets were gone,” Johnson said, and there were no towels or rugs in the bathroom. “If she had been taking a bath, she would have needed towels. There were no rugs. It was spotless.”

The family called police back. Officers interviewed family members and took the body to the coroner, whose autopsy ruled Kirkegaard’s death a homicide.

It’s an ending the family is struggling to accept.

“I would have accepted it better if she would have died under accidental circumstances,” Johnson said. “How would you feel? I want to kill the bastard that did this.”

Few leads in case

With few leads, police face an uphill battle. Nothing has been ruled out, police spokesman Sam Clemens said. Even though investigators say they have no suspects, Clemens said police don’t think the community is in danger.

“I guess we don’t know (who did this). Obviously, there was a homicide that took place and we’re working on trying to find out who’s responsible,” he said.

On Monday, police went door to door in the neighborhood near Garfield Elementary, asking residents to look through their garbage for the missing bed sheets or any other potential evidence.

(Page 2 of 2)

“It’s certainly unusual enough to not have the sheets on the bed. We don’t know what’s on the sheets. We just want to recover them and see what’s on them,” Clemens said.

Sioux Falls had three homicides last year. The most recent was in December when Jordan LeBeau was killed in his home during what prosecutors call a robbery gone bad.

Homicide victims usually know or have some kind of connection with the killer, police say. The last random killing in the city occurred in 2011 when James McVay killed Maybelle Schein.

“There are quite a few different things that are unusual about this,” Clemens said. “We go to a lot of unattended deaths. Sometimes there are medical issues. On the outset, that’s what this seemed to be, just another death where someone passed at their home. But once the autopsy was done, and the preliminary cause was homicide, that’s what changed it. The missing bedding raised some red flags.”

Clemens said Kirkegaard’s family members are not considered suspects, and police are awaiting the coroner’s autopsy report beforeannouncing how she died.

A dedicated mother

Nick Kirkegaard said his fiancée was the one who found his mother. They searched the home after his mother didn’t respond to text messages or phone calls Saturday.

He said his mother, who raised him alone, was “the nicest woman you’d ever meet.”

“She was the most loving, caring woman,” Nick said. “You’d never have to ask her for anything twice. You’d ask for help, and she’d be there. She meant a lot to a lot of people.”

He said his mother fought breast cancer three years ago, but other health problems had kept her from working.

“She’s had extreme headaches since she was a kid,” he said. “They hadn’t been able to find out what was wrong.”

Her obituary says Kirkegaard graduated from Washington High School in 1976. She most recently worked at Total Card Inc. Nick was her only child. She enjoyed watching him race at Huset’s Speedway.

Her funeral is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at Peace Lutheran Church with a visitation from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.

Anyone who might have information or might have seen the victim during the weekend is urged to call police at 605-357-7007.